Welcome to the Agnes Ross Education Center. 

Our center is named after our first chairwoman, Agnes Ross (1910~2000). Agnes was the daughter of John Allen and Ida Wakeman Allen. Agnes was born and raised here in Wakpa Ipaksan and was the first in her family to attend college. She graduated in 1931 and soon after became a Dakota bi-lingual teacher using experimental teaching methods, incorporating music and hands on learning, which later garnered her a position as a pre-kindergarten teacher due to her bi-lingual abilities.

In 1958 Agnes was named Teacher of Year and also earned a master's degree.  She spent the next decade in various positions overseeing pre-k teachers on the Pine Ridge Reservation and organizing the first Oglala Sioux Conference on Indian Education. In 1968 Agnes helped establish the first college on the Pine Ridge Reservation, after which she became the first woman chairperson of Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe in 1972.

Agnes was recognized for her work in education receiving many accolades throughout her career. Here is a small list of her accomplishments as one of the first Dakota Woman to serve in various positions, bettering the lives of Native Americans through education:

• 1974 South Dakota State Manpower Planning / Service Council
• 1975 South Dakota State Board of Cultural Preservation
• 1980 Receives Honorary Doctorate Degree / Oglala Lakota College 
• 1996 Receives Lifetime Achievement Award / South Dakota NIEA Host Committee

We named our facility after Agnes Ross and her pioneering efforts in Native American education and her dedication to teaching the Dakota / English Languages. To learn more about Agnes's journey, read her biography, Keeper of the Female Medicine Bundle written by Dr. A.C Ross.